Smoke free – Sous Vide – Strip Steak

I finally got around to trying my new toy, I purchased the Anova Sous Vide – bluetooth edition. I have been doing a little research on this method, which is labeled as precision cooking. You take the product you want to cook and you season it, and it pick the target temperature that you want to serve it at. You place the product in a bag and remove the air, I personally used my vacuum sealer, and place it into the water. The device will then reach the specific temp and continue to hold it at the temp as long as you want For this test, I purchased some strip steaks that were on sale, so about a $15 test meal.

I added salt and pepper on both sides and added a pat of butter to each and then vacuum sealed them.

Since I did not bother to read the instructions, I placed the steaks in the water and then set the temp on the device to 129, which is what the recommend for Medium Rare. The device will then heat and circulate the water at that temp. It has a timer and will alarm when it is complete. Reading up on the steaks, recommended is 2-4 hours at 129 followed by a quick sear. The longer you cook it, the more tender it will be. But the true magic is, the meat is cooked consistently end to end. Normally a steak medium rare would be well on the onside, medium inside, then medium rare in the center. Because of time constraints, I cooked them for 3 hours.

To finish the product, the recommended method is a high heat sear for about 1 minute per side. A lot of people use a cast iron pan, some use a food quality torch, but I chose to use my Weber grill that has a searing station.

I seared it as recommended flipping it 4 times to get the grill mark effects.

All in all, it worked as designed and I was able to get the results I was looking for. I may go 4 hours next time at a degree or so lower.